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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · fall · wave · bear · band · tube · court · lie

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  8. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  9. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  20. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. band — a music group
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. fall — to drop
  7. wave — a sudden rise
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. lie — to recline
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. tube — a container
  12. tube — the underground
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. court — of a king
  15. fall — the season
  16. court — for sport
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. fall — to drop
  19. bear — the animal
  20. bear — the animal
  21. cold — an illness
  22. wave — of the sea
  23. court — of law
  24. band — a rubber band

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com